Late payment consultation annex 2: agreement with 60-day maximum payment terms by business size
Updated 24 July 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/late-payments-tackling-poor-payment-practices/outcome/late-payment-consultation-annex-2-agreement-with-60-day-maximum-payment-terms-by-business-size
The consultation asked whether respondents agreed with 60-day maximum payments terms:
Q10a. To what extent do you agree that limiting UK payment terms to 60 days at a maximum will be effective in addressing the stated problem of long payment times?
[Strongly agree / somewhat agree / neither / somewhat disagree / strongly disagree]
Table 1 presents responses to this question, broken down by business size.
Table 1: responses by business size
| Business size | Agree | Disagree | Neither agree nor disagree |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole trader, partnership or other businesses without employees (0 employees) | 62% | 34% | 4% |
| Micro business (1 to 9 employees) | 73% | 22% | 6% |
| Small business (10 to 49 employees) | 70% | 23% | 7% |
| Medium business (50 to 249 employees) | 56% | 31% | 13% |
| Large business (250 or more employees) | 44% | 47% | 8% |